Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Nothing worth doing is easy.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

You are here: Home / Politics / Religion / Religious Nuts 2 / Kansas Supreme Court Performs a Late Term Abortion on Phil Kline’s Legal Career

Kansas Supreme Court Performs a Late Term Abortion on Phil Kline’s Legal Career

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You all remember panty-sniffing Phil Kline, the abortion fanatic who also happened to be the Kansas Attorney General? Not his best week:

The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday indefinitely suspended former Attorney General Phillip Kline (R), who investigated abortion doctor George Tiller, from the practice of law in the state.

The court cited “clear and convincing evidence” that Kline committed 11 violations of attorney conduct rules while investigating abortion clinics as attorney general and for his role in a grand jury investigation while serving as Johnson County district attorney.

“Ultimately, we unanimously conclude the weight of the aggravating factors–i.e., Kline’s inability or refusal to acknowledge the line between overzealous advocacy and operating within the bounds of the law and his professional obligations; his selfish motives; and his lengthy and substantial pattern of misconduct–weigh more heavily than the mitigating factors and merit his indefinite suspension,” the court wrote in its opinion.

The court’s findings against Kline, who served as Kansas attorney general from 2003 to 2007, stem from a complaint first filed against him in 2010. As TPM reported at the time, Kline was accused of “dispatching staff to record license plates of women entering George Tiller’s abortion clinic, getting records from a motel where patients stayed, and obtaining state medical files under false pretenses, then retaining them after his term as AG was over and repeatedly lying about it in court.” These alleged actions occurred during Kline’s pursuit of Tiller, who ran Women’s Health Care Services in Wichita, Kan., and who was shot to death in 2009.

The creep should be in jail. This update from his lawyer was kind of otherworldly:

According to Condit, he and Kline are still considering “all options.” Asked whether his client even wanted to practice law in Kansas anymore, Condit said that one issue is that if Kline wants to get licensed in another jurisdiction, and is suspended in Kansas, he likely won’t get the other license.

That’s the entire fucking point, Condit. The man is a menace and a disgrace to the legal profession. The whole point of suspending his license is so he CAN’T practice law.

Reader Interactions

55Comments

  3. 3.

    Napoleon

    Great that TPM in their update got what effect it would have on him nationwide. And thank FSM that the KS SC is on top of this

  7. 7.

    fuckwit

    Glad that douchecanoe has been neutralized.

    But what’s with the panty-sniffing? Was he caught sniffing panties, like David Vitter wtih the diapers? How did Kline get ths particular appellation?

  8. 8.

    Kay

    If anyone wants to read the ethics opinion it’s here.

    It’s long, but it’s really pretty chilling. It’s downright creepy how he hung onto the medical records, and then lied about retaining them. Before he was forced to turn them over, he made an employee write a “summary” of each record.

  9. 9.

    The Other Chuck

    I wonder how many private suits are pending against mister Kline? A disbarment can, I suspect, be used as a finding of fact.

  10. 10.

    Alison

    @fuckwit: Cole wasn’t being literal. The dude tried to get access to women’s health records regarding abortions; he wanted all their private medical reproductive health details. So…metaphorical panty-sniffing.

  12. 12.

    PurpleGirl

    Kline would have made a good member of the Spanish Inquisition. And in an alternate universe, not for him a comfy chair, but maybe a pear…

  13. 13.

    The Other Chuck

    @PurpleGirl:

    And in an alternate universe, not for him a comfy chair, but maybe a pear

    And for the edification of the readers, she didn’t mean fruit. I’m somewhat chagrined to already have known the meaning, but the squeamish will not want to google “spanish inquisition pear”.

  15. 15.

    shelly

    but the squeamish will not want to google “spanish inquisition pear”.

    You just guaranteed everyone doing exactly that! ;-)

  16. 16.

    themann1086

    @Alison: Wasn’t Kline the nutjob who made that comment about middle school girls having lesbian orgies in the public school restrooms? Or was that someone else? I remember it being a Kansas official…

  18. 18.

    scav

    ooooOOOoo. Govt officials collecting private medical records for personal vendettas? The anti-Obamacare vigilantes must be entirely at the barricades, mailing teabags and whatnot, protesting this scary govt overreach and invasion, correctamundo?

    ETA: and no, I will not be saying that last word again.

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    He’s not practicing law any more, in any case. He’s teaching it a Liberty U.’s law school.

    A disbarred lawyer on the faculty of Falwell’s baby somehow fits and makes the yin and yang complete.

  28. 28.

    Tara the Antisocial Social Worker

    I’ve been trying to spread the term “Phillk Line” to mean the line between one’s nose and one’s neighbor’s panties.

  31. 31.

    Ella in New Mexico

    So Phil Kline finally gets his slap on the wrist. It took HOW many years until they finally stopped this monster from terrorizing the women of Kansas?

    Dr. Tiller is still dead, a murder that was fully supported by Kline and contributed to by the political climate this bastard kept flaming.

    The wheels of justice grind ever so slowly in America.

  33. 33.

    gbear

    Has anyone seen that New Jersey’s Supreme Court has given the go-ahead for gay marriage? The legislature voted in favor of it, the people want it, and the courts are allowing it. Chris Christie can go bite a fart.

  34. 34.

    Anne Laurie

    @themann1086: Nope, that was Senator Coburn of Oklahoma, who still has his job & the power to terrorize not just his state but the whole country.

  35. 35.

    Kay

    @Ella in New Mexico:

    The most disgusting part of the whole opinion is when he lost as AG, Republicans APPOINTED him to the county prosecutor job left vacant by the guy who beat him in the AG race.

    They deliberately and carefully got him a new (county) prosecutor’s job, even after voters removed him, so he could continue the inquisition. Ultimately, that’s what buried him though, because that’s where he took the records and then lied about it. Their political machinations ultimately did him in.

  37. 37.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Napoleon: His being suspended in Kansas may prevent him from passing a character and fitness exam in another state, but if it doesn’t he could always sit for the bar exam somewhere else. It does, however, prevent him from “waiving in” to the board of another state, which is a courtesy some states extend to attorneys from other states to prevent them from having to take another bar exam.

  38. 38.

    ? Martin

    This is an absolutely stunning story. I don’t understand how this guy isn’t in prison. No wonder Kansans believe government is the enemy.

  40. 40.

    ? Martin

    @efgoldman: Yeah, but you can’t fail on this measure. Either you voted for him and government failed because even the AG couldn’t help you climb into other people’s uteruses and legally kill their physicians, or you voted against him and wound up with an AG that abused his office to enact some personal vendetta.

  42. 42.

    themann1086

    @Anne Laurie: Thanks; I didn’t want to google it since, well, that’s an awkward browser history entry to explain! Senator Coburn is also from Oklahoma, so I got the state wrong, too. My bad!

  44. 44.

    Lavocat

    It’s called reciprocity for a reason.

    Neutralize this asshole in his home state and you neutralize him EVERYWHERE.

  45. 45.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Bobby Thomson: Actually, many, and perhaps most states will not let someone sit for an exam if they are under discipline in another state. Likewise, most states have reciprocal disciplinary systems so that lawyers holding 2 state licenses will end up with both suspended as a result of discipline in one state. A pretty well known Ohio attorney who was disbarred in Kentucky “retired” his license prior to his certain disbarrment in Ohio.

  46. 46.

    Yatsuno

    @Southern Beale: John Yoo still fucking teaches at Berkeley Law. I have zero idea how the alumni can stand for that to be true. I’d be raising a shit fit and telling them to stuff their donations where the sun don’t shine.

  47. 47.

    fidelio

    I can see this fever blister signed up with the Witchfinder General, and doing the head-to-toe searches for the devil’s mark or a witch’s teat with great enthusiasm.

  48. 48.

    Jay C

    @efgoldman:

    Truth. Kline is probably already drafting his stock “ evil baby- killer libruls killed my career” speech to deliver to AFA -sponsored griftfests the length and breadth of the Bible Belt, so that everyone can marvel at his Horrific Martyrdom.

    Poor Phil. NOT

  50. 50.

    AxelFoley

    @The Other Chuck:

    And for the edification of the readers, she didn’t mean fruit. I’m somewhat chagrined to already have known the meaning, but the squeamish will not want to google “spanish inquisition pear”.

    Heh, I had to look it up. Holy shit, the Inquisition was NO joke.

  52. 52.

    AnotherBruce

    @AxelFoley: Torture for Jesus, quite a concept. But that’s kind of what happens when you create an imaginary repository for evil called “Satan”.

  53. 53.

    Villago Delenda Est

    It really is a shame that the Kansas Supreme Court did not have the option to put this asshole in stocks for couple of weeks and allow people to pelt him with rotten produce.

  54. 54.

    low-tech cyclist

    @NotMax:

    He’s not practicing law any more, in any case. He’s teaching it a Liberty U.’s law school.

    A disbarred lawyer on the faculty of Falwell’s baby somehow fits and makes the yin and yang complete.

    Someone should ask Liberty U.’s president whether they’re going to keep Kline on the faculty, or dismiss him. (They will of course keep him; little things like honesty and ethical conduct don’t matter when you’ve got a culture war to fight.)

  55. 55.

    pluky

    @NotMax: Actually, “The Prince” is an instruction manual. Sort of to politics what the Necronomicon would be to ceremonial magic.

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